Q: What is your viewpoint about the baptism of Jesus and His Cross? Are you with sin or without sin now? How can you solve the problem of daily and future sins?

A: Thank you for your letter to TruthBook.com. We are always glad to hear from truth-seekers.

You asked: What is your viewpoint about the baptism of Jesus and His Cross?

I think that Jesus death on the cross was the great tragedy of our history; that a divine Son of God—the ambassador and creator of the universe—should be brutally tortured and hung on a cross to die is a spectacle of human depravity and cruelty. Nonetheless, through that decision that Jesus made—to allow his life to play out in the most human way—we are gifted with a shining example of human willingness to follow God’s will to the nth degree. He showed us throughout his life how to be a son of God—how to live the spirit-filled and spirit-led life—how to overcome sorrow, disappointment and even death through faith and through willingness to do the Father’s will.

You might like to read “Lessons from the Cross” from The Urantia Book

You then asked: Are you with sin or without sin now?

We are all without sin, in the sense that we are not born sinful. We may become sinful by our own willful choices that take us away from the Father’s will of truth, beauty and goodness. But that is a freewill choice; we also have the choice to walk in God’s ways and do our best to live a righteous life, full of the fruits of the spirit. There is no inherent sinfulness in man, no “original sin.” Jesus never taught that; instead he taught that we are faith-sons of God, and through that faith we are granted salvation. Referencing your first question: I don’t believe that Jesus’ death on the cross had any bearing on the question of my being with or without sin. That is a function of freewill choice; always was, and always will be.

And: How can you solve the problem of daily and future sins?

Just so we are clear, the following is a passage from The Urantia Book, and the speaker is Jesus:

“Sin is the conscious, knowing, and deliberate transgression of the divine law, the Father’s will. Sin is the measure of unwillingness to be divinely led and spiritually directed.”

Turning that around we can say that solving the problem of daily and future sin is to deliberately follow divine law, and be willing to be divinely led and spiritually directed. This becomes more and more a real possibility when we understand that we are indwelt by God himself, in the form of the Thought Adjuster—that spark of God that indwells the mind of each mortal. We can choose to listen and be directed. We can choose to spend time seeking the “still, small voice” within at times of decision, doubt or confusion. We can choose to say “It is my will to do your will, ” and then actually try do it.

It is a responsibility that all truth-seekers, and all spiritual seekers have—to walk the talk; to really put into practice what we say we believe. It is challenging to all who are sincere of heart, and we all falter—we all fail at times—we all choose the wrong thing sometimes…but one thing that I have noticed in my years of spiritual seeking: the closer I get to God, the worse I feel when I take the wrong path, and the quicker I am to try and make amends and get right again. And I know that I am forgiven when I sincerely recognize my error and decide to change. So, as time goes on, we should be able to expect that our own experience will help us to increasingly avoid sin. It feels much better when we do the right thing!

Thank you for this question. I hope the reply has been helpful…